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Survival Instinct (episode)
Seven encounters three ex-Borg with whom she had been temporarily separated from the Collective years ago. Summary In 2368 a Borg Sphere enters the atmosphere of Planet 1865-Alpha and crashes into the surface, only four Borg drones survive. Eight years later, in 2376, the Federation starship [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] docks at a Markonian outpost in the Delta Quadrant, to allow shore leave for its crew and a cultural exchange. Three of the four survivors show up and pay Voyager a visit, in search of the fourth survivor. Survival protocols The four drones who survived the crash are confused because their link to the Collective is severed. During this confusion the drone Seven of Nine takes command and they leave the crashsite, taking a killed drone with them, before the Sphere's transwarp chamber explodes. When removing parts from the deceased drone, to construct a communications beacon, one of the survivors, 'Four of Nine' objects, "It is against the will of Brothara". When asked who Brothara is, 'Two of Nine' tells them it is a supernatural being, worshiped by Species 571. 'Two of Nine' says he is one of them whereupon 'Three of Nine' remarks if he considers himself an individual as he states "I am a member of Species 571". Seven of Nine orders them to stop, they are Borg, not individuals! They all agree and resume constructing the communications beacon. The four drones made a campfire, to prepare an animal of some sort, and remembered situations in their past. 'Seven of Nine' remembered a tall man, her father and being afraid of the dark,although in close proximity of a fire. 'Two of Nine' was in a house with a burning fire, eating with other people and solving mathematical problems, just before he was assimilated. 'Three of Nine' found the flesh similar to a bird she once ate. 'Four of Nine' remembered his parents, living in a small building near a river, he cooked for them before the Borg killed them. "I have a name. It's... Marika. Marika Willkarah" 'Three of Nine' explains, she was married and worked in Engineering on board the starship [[USS Excalibur|USS Excalibur]], during her nightwatch the Borg came and assimilated her. 'Four of Nine' also remembered his name, P'Chan. Their resurfacing memories troubled 'Seven of Nine', made her nervous, she told them to stop talking about their past. To not access these memory files again and only to use maintenance and survival protocols until rescued by the Borg. They all agreed to do so. Stardate 53049.2 :Captains log : We've docked at the Markonian outpost and agreed to mutual visits, so I'm allowing shore leave to anyone who wants it. Commander Tuvok has objected to taking on too many visitors. But, security issues aside, I'm looking forward to a cultural exchange and making some new friends Voyager, docked at the Markonian Outpost, is swarming with people and while Captain Kathryn Janeway is attending a plant, given to her by the stations manager, Commander Chakotay enters her ready room with a gift from the Kinbori delegation. A very heavy contraption used in their sacred games. Their conversation is interrupted by Tuvok who enters the room with his security report, three pages long. Although Janeway compares the situation in her room as a Christmas morning, Tuvok remains concerned about the vast amount of people on the ship. Despite his report Captain Janeway finds opening the ship a success, as does Chakotay. "I am pleased that you are pleased" Tuvok responds. When he is on his way out Chakotay tries to give him a Voyager medallion, such as the Kinbori delegation received. Tuvok, not understanding the joke, simply looks at him and leaves. In Voyager's crowded mess hall, Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman were trying to enjoy their dinner. When Seven tells Naomi not to use borg designations when referring to a Shivolian woman, she breaks off their dinner. Seven does not enjoy crowds because of her experiences in the Borg Collective. When both of them want to stand up they are interrupted by a man, "Are you Seven of Nine?" he asks and shows her a small case which contains several Borg synaptic relays, which he acquired from a trader on Orendal V. Looking at the relays Seven experiences a flashback, a crashed Borg sphere, survivors, a dead drone. The relays are from Sevens original Unimatrix and she purchase the relays from the unknown man, so she can study them. When Naomi asks the man who he is, he looks briefly at her and leaves. "That was rude" she says and sits down to finish her dinner. The man, a few steps away from her table, stands still. "Stage two is complete. She has the relays." A woman and a man, on two different places aboard Voyager responds, silently. "She's going to study them. Her regeneration alcove is in Cargo Bay 2. That's where she'll go. We should prepare for stage three. Agreed. There's consensus. Rendezvous at my coordinates and stand by to penetrate their security." In Cargo bay 2, Seven of Nine is examining the synaptic relays with the help of Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres. Here she tells Torres that she was overwhelmed with images when she first saw the relays. When Seven dismisses any nostalgic feelings, Torres tells her that although she might not be nostalgic about her past she definitely has feelings about it. Back in the mess hall the unknown man is joined by a woman and another man, the persons he 'spoke' to previously. They communicate silently while eating, with Seven as the leading subject. One of their objectives is to break Voyager's security protocols but the second man is in doubt, he does not want to harm Seven but he needs to agree as consensus is necessary for them to go forward with their plan."Apologies are irelevant!" the woman whispers to him when he tries to explain himself. Meanwhile in cargo bay 2, Seven has entered her Borg alcove after starting a multi polar analysis on the synaptic relays. The start of her regeneration cycle did not go unnoticed. The three people in the mess hall stopped eating and started re-routing Voyager''s internal sensors. On the bridge Tuvok noticed a power fluctuation in the security grid, which he reported. Three people entered cargo bay 2, via a turbolift access panel and then through an access panel in the one off the cargo bay walls, the same who were eating together in the messhall. Standing in front of Seven's alcove, the second man still worries about Seven. ''"If we fail, we'll never become individuals" the woman told him and consensus was reached. By inserting assimilation tubules in Seven's neck they found the memory files they were after but Seven woke up. When she tried to defend herself a security team, with drawn phasers, entered the cargo bay and fired upon the three attackers. Memory cascade In sickbay, The Doctor examins the three persons, who could now be identified by Seven because they were momentarily linked together in the cargo bay. They were former Borg drones, escaped from the Collective some three to four months ago. The woman, 'Three of Nine' formerly known as Marika Willkarah and the two males, 'Two of Nine' formerly known as Lansor and 'Four of Nine' formerly known as P'Chan. Their Borg implants were removed, although this left them with damaged internal organs and scar covered bodies but they were still connected to eachother, a collective triad. That was the reason they needed Seven, to find out what happened eight years ago and so find a way to break their neural link, a link The Doctor was unable to break. This link prevented any form of privacy, every thought or dream by either one of them was heard by the others. Making it difficult for them to even remember who they were. When they were reintegrated into the Borg Hive mind, the three of them were still connected to eachother or as Lansor and Marika describe it, "lt's like having three voices whispering in one ear... and a crowd screaming in the other.". Seven agreed to help and in cargo bay 2 she tried to retrieve their memories. The last thing they all remembered after the crash, including Seven, was the campfire. After that, their first memory was that of their reintegration into the Collective. Seven found no evidence of a malfunction, their cortical processors were working correctly, and could not explain the memory gap. The three former borg drones would nothing more than being individuals in stead of a three person collective, aware of eachothers every thought. When they asked why Seven still used her Borg designation in stead of her own name, she told them she decided her former name was no longer appropriate and prepared to reinitialize their memory cascade. In the Captain's ready room, Tom Paris and Harry Kim were reprimanded because they got into a fight with the Kinbori. They were looking for a bar when they ran into two Kinbori who wanted to play one of their games, the one with the odd looking rackets, which turned out to be a similar item Chakotay gave the Captain. Because both Officers did not know the rules by which the game was played, after they played the first volley the Kindori jumped over the net and attacked them, they fought back and things ran out of hand. Seven Voyager crewman, 13 Kinbori and a Morphinian cafe owner got arrested. Janeway confined them to their quarters. When both of them left the room, Seven of Nine entered and discussed her progress about solving the memory problem concerning the former drones. All the former borg drones, Seven included, had the same memory gap. Janeway did not believed the Collective was responsable for the triad collective. Their was no advantage of having a collective within a collective according to Seven. However, there might be a solution. Seven could link with them and so try to retrieve their lost memories. The danger existed that she might get trapped in the neural link, making a quartet collective out of a triad. Seven is compelled to help them but unsure what the best way should be. Janeway asked her if she saw the triad as family. When Seven questioned the relevancy, Janeway told her that blood is thicker than water, meaning, one often does things for members of a family one would not do for others. Error, input failure While walking through a corridor, on her way to cargo bay 2, Seven was joined by Naomi Wildman. She heard about the drones and wanted to known if they had hurt Seven. Seven stopped, turned towards Naomi and asked her if she saw her as family. After some deliberation Naomi told her, "Yes". When Naomi reversed the question, after a short silence, Seven said also "Yes" and entered the cargo bay. Leaving behind a smiling Naomi Wildman. Seven decided to link herself with the former borg drones. Although the Doctor would monitor the procedure, he was not certain if he could remove Seven from the link if things started to go bad. When the four of them entered their borg alcoves they all relived the crash. Seven left the campsite and found a fifth survivor, in a nearby swamp. Although she tried to help him, the drone died. After she returned the communication beacon went active, the Borg had located them. When Seven told them they would be part of the Borg again the others refused. They did not want to rejoin the Collective. Seven objected, she was only part of the greater whole, not an individual and they existed only to serve the Collective. "Not any more" said 'Two of Nine' and he smashed the beacon. Seven got confused, "Error, input failure" and listened how the others made plans to elude the Borg, despite Seven's objection. 'Three of Nine' did not want to be reassimilated and left the campsite with the others, leaving a troubled Seven of Nine behind. Seven, now alone, walked back and forth at the campsite and eventually walked away. 'Four of Nine', who was walking around, was suddenly fired upon and fell to the ground. Seven of Nine shot him and used her assimilation tubules to inject nanoprobes into his body, they would create new interlink nodes in his left hemisphere. "Resistance is futile" she replied and 'Four of Nine' followed her. Next, 'Two of Nine' was injected and the three of them went to search for 'Three of Nine'. Despite her attempt to flee she was caught and injected with nanoprobes. After this, Seven ordered them to repair the communications beacon. Upon the discovery that Seven was responsable for the creation of the triad, their neural link with Seven broke, resulting in an overload of their cortical implants, as The Doctor later explained to Seven in sickbay. The creation of an interlink between the three drones had a side effect, their higher brain functions got intertwined with the interlink. The shock when the interlink broke damaged their cognitive systems. Altough the link still could be removed they would not survive it. The former drones would only live for at most a month. The Doctor told Seven that they could be returned to the Borg Collective and so save their lives. Individual or Drone Seven was unsure what decision to make and discussed it with Commander Chakotay in Astrometrics. Because Seven was assimilated as a child, she was scared, unsure what to do with her individuality. When she watched the dying drone, she panicked and thought she would die, alone. That's why Seven created the link, to force them to stay and return to the Collective. Chakotay asked what she would choose, to live a short time as an individual or a lifetime as a Borg drone. "Which option would you choose ?" he asked her. Seven told the Doctor that she wanted to break the link, "Survival is insufficient" she told him. The Doctor questioned her motives but she told him she wanted them to experience individuality, just like the Doctor. His mobile emitter gave him freedom of movement and he was allowed to expand his program. Without it he would still be confined to sickbay. Seven was sure that the drones would choose freedom, however short that might be, above reassimilation. The Doctor agreed with her and removed the implants who were responsable for the interlink In Voyager''s messhall, Lansor, Marika and P'Chan stared out the windows. ''"I had no idea you were going to say that" P'Chan replied when Marika told them she found it quiet, and smiled. The three were no longer linked to eachother. Lansor had even forgotten what it was like, to be alone with his thoughts. He told them he would leave Voyager and to spend the time he had left on the Markonian space station, to meet new people. P'Chan also left, for an uninhabited planet nearby, to spend his final days in the open air. He wished Seven of Nine all the best, his people did not hold grudges towards wrong doers. Marika remained on Voyager, she liked being on a Federation starship again, but did not forgive Seven for what see did. However, Marika did understand the reason why Seven did it. In astrometrics Seven was joined by Naomi Wildman, she thought Seven would like some company, because of what happend to the drone. Naomi thought Seven would like to spend some time with...family. Log Entries * Captain's log, USS Voyager, 2376 Memorable Quotes "It's never a good sign when the patient feels the need to comfort the doctor." : - The Doctor, to Seven of Nine "YOU stay here and be reassimilated, if you want to. I won't." : - Marika Willkarah, to Seven of Nine "Doesn't it look like Christmas morning in here, commander?" "You have to admit, the generosity of our guests is very impressive." "As is their proclivity for criminal behavior; This morning's security report." "Broken ODN line, some missing personal items, damaged scanner relay; all in all not that bad." "There is a second page to the report." "Well, some of these incidents are a little more serious, but unbalanced. I still think we did the right thing." "There is a third page." : - Janeway, Tuvok, and Chakotay, after storing excess gifts in Janeway's ready room Background Information *This is the first of two Voyager episodes written by TNG/DS9 writer Ronald D. Moore. *Bertila Damas previously played the Vulcan Maquis member Sakonna in . Vaughn Armstrong also appeared on DS9, playing Danar in and Seskal in . He later played Admiral Maxwell Forrest on Star Trek: Enterprise. *Amongst the visiting aliens from the Markonian outpost in this episode are several Voth from . *Marika mentions she served on the USS Excalibur. The Excalibur was the ship commanded by Commander William Riker in , also written by Ronald D. Moore. *The costume worn by the stunt actor portraying Ilon Tandro in would later be used by a background alien in this episode. Links and References Guest Stars *Vaughn Armstrong as Lansor (Two of Nine) *Bertila Damas as Marika Willkarah (Three of Nine) *Tim Kelleher as P'Chan (Four of Nine) *Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References Ansha; Bajoran; Borg; Borg sphere; Brothara; Domar; ''Excalibur'', USS; Inavar Prime; interlink node; Kinbori; Markonian; Markonian outpost; marsupial surprise; microcortical implant; Morphinian; nanoprobe; Orendal V; Orendal system; Planet 1865-Alpha; Shivolian; Species 571; synaptic relay |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Überlebensinstinkt fr:Survival Instinct nl:Survival Instinct